St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-03-03
WIND AND SNOW.


Severe storms of Unusual Length and
Severity.
1t has been many years since snow
storms of greater severity than those
of the past week have visited this Sec
ton of the county. Trains have been
blocked fol- hours and in some instan-
ces for days. The troubles on the
Passumpsic road have been severe but
hardly worth mentioning beside those
on the Vermont division of the Boston
q Lowell road, particularly between
here and Walden heights. For more
than a quarter of mile the snow was
from five to 20 feet deep, in one place
being fully 81 feet deep by measure.
Over five miles of the road was little
better as it was badly drifted every
where. The high wind that prevailed
Friday night and Sunday managed to
undo about all the railroad men could
do, and they did their best.
The snow began falling Thursday
morning and kept it up with brief in
tervals until Sunday. Where it show
ed any disposition to lay where it fell
the wind gathered it up and put it
somewhere else. The train that left
Burlington Thursday afternoon at $50
managed to get through at o'clock
Friday night after many tribulations.
A New York runner named Harris, who
evidently hadn't ever been out in a
real snow storm, gives his experiences
with considerable pathos. There
were two other drummers aboard so
the train was pretty heavily weighted.
They left Burlington at 4.5O Thursday
afternoon. At Cambridge Junction
they were held an hour and half, till
the snow pillow arrived from St. Johns
bury. After turning the pillow and
engine and borrowing some coal from
the waiting engine, they all set out and
got to Morrisville at 10. Here they
ate lunch which had been ordered by
telegraph and went on. When they
got to Joe's pond they were dead stuck
and a Mr.. Flint who lives near by kept
them from starving with dOughnuts
and coffee. They reached West DAN
vile Friday morning at 10 o'clock and
couldn't get away until IL a. M, and
had gone but short distance from
there when they were again stuck and
held in the drifts until 4.30 p. IN. They
were caught again before reaching
Danville which they managed to leave
at 6 o'clock and got here an hour later.
The three passengers speak in the
most fattering terms of train master
Severance and the train hands who
worked like veterans to get the train
through.
Freight Conductor John Clark man
aged to get his train Friday night as
far as the lodges near Joe's pond when
it was stalled in the drifts. Clark, ac-
cOmpanied by Engineer Brainerd,
pluckily walked down here, some sew
Ell miles or so, in the midst of the
binding storm and reported his train
safely lodged in a snow bank. They
looked like arctic travellers when they
reached here but were not seriously
effected by the hard tramp.
The road hands inspired by train
master Blossoms enthusiasm, and A.
j. Corriveau's electrical messages,
worked like heroes. HI. w. Varnum
started a snow pillow for Cambridge
Junction with such force that it jump
ed the track near JOe's pond and stop
ped all proceedings by taking firm
stand at right angles with the track
and unfortunately on it. Later it was
dumped by the road side where it will
rest until next summer when the train
boys propose finishing it off into tene-
ments for summer bOarders.
Trains were badly delayed on the
Passumpsic road Thursday and Friday
and again Monday, but no serious mis-
hap occurred except the accident at
West Burke noted elsewhere. Some
of the trains on Friday were cancelled.
The Southeastern was troubled very
little, the whole force of the blow be-
ing concentrated on the Passumpsic.
Over in the White mountains the trou-
BILE was also serious, trains in the
notch being delayed for days. Be-
tween here and Concord the storm and
blockade was reported the worst for
| ten years.